DID YOU READ

NYFF: “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

In the press notes, George Clooney says of his second directorial effort, "Good Night, and Good Luck": "There’s an opportunity that one in a hundred young kids actually might learn who [Edward R.] Murrow is and have some discussion and have some understanding of what and how dangerous a democracy can be if fear is used as a weapon." Ah, George â€” there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell one in a hundred young kids actually might watch your tasteful recreation of CBS newsman Murrow’s war with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 50s. "Good Night, and Good Luck" is a fairytale comfort food for disaffected liberals, and we won’t deny that we felt a warm glow watching it: Because their consciences and personal integrity demanded it, these journalists took a stand! Against HUAC! And took the higher ground! They used McCarthy’s own words as weapons against him! And America responded!

The obvious comparison here is "All the President’s Men," but "Good Night, and Good Luck" lacks the tension of Alan Pakula‘s film, and the slightly sleazy rakishness of Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford‘s Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. David Strathairn is great as Murrow, Brylcreemed and world-weary, but he’s a white knight, armed with a news magazine show and backed by a group of go-get-’em young reporters. Strathairn has Murrow’s staring-down-the-camera, carefully enunciated delivery down pat, but it’d be nice to see more of his personality (as in one remarkably eloquent glance after being congratulated on his chat with Liberace for "Person to Person," the celebrity interview show Murrow did "to pay the bills"). Clooney is fine as Murrow’s longtime co-producer and friend Fred Friendly; Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson don’t have much to do as two members of the news crew who are secretly married, and provide the only real glimpse of a home life we get in the film.

A lot of vintage footage from the era is integrated into the film, most notably of McCarthy â€” producer Grant Heslov claims this is because no matter who they got to play McCarthy, people wouldn’t find him believable: "They were going to think that the guy was over-acting." We think the decision was a mistake â€” with the film’s action so confined to the CBS building, the fact that Murrow’s great foe is only seen piped in on newsreels and television screens around the office downplays the stakes involved â€” as much as the real Murrow and McCarthy only battled it out over the airwaves, seeing Strathairn taking on a tape of the long-dead senator is a bit reminiscent of watching someone pretend to have a conversation with a pre-recorded video of themselves.

The camerawork is generally as straightforward as the story, though sometimes Clooney shows a touch of Soderbergh‘s (who executive produced) influence, playing with focus and off-center close-ups. He does have a nice trick where, when the show is live on air, we see the production board, with one screen showing whatever footage they’re rolling, and another keeping on Murrow and his off-air reactions.

Celebrating Portlandia One Sketch at a Time

Most people measure time in minutes, hours, days, years…At IFC, we measure it in sketches. And nothing takes us way (waaaaaay) back like Portlandia sketches. Yes, there’s a Portlandia milepost from every season that changed the way we think, behave, and pickle things. In honor of Portlandia’s 8th and final season, Subaru presents a few of our favorites.

Artfully Off

Sisters Weekend isn’t like other comedy groups. It’s filmmaking collaboration between besties Angelo Balassone, Michael Fails and Kat Tadesco, self-described lace-front addicts with great legs who write, direct, design and produce video sketches and cinematic shorts that are so surreally hilarious that they defy categorization. One such short film, Celebrity All-Star, is the newest addition to IFC’s Comedy Crib. Here’s what they had to say about it in a very personal email interview…

IFC: How would you describe Celebrity All-Star to a fancy network executive you just met in an elevator?

Celebrity All-Star is a short film about an overworked reality TV coordinator struggling to save her one night off after the cast of C-List celebrities she wrangles gets locked out of their hotel rooms.

IFC: How would you describe Celebrity All-Star to a drunk friend of a friend you met in a bar?

Sisters Weekend: It’s this short we made for IFC where a talent coordinator named Karen babysits a bunch of weird c-list celebs who are stuck in a hotel bar. It’s everyone you hate from reality TV under one roof – and that roof leaks because it’s a 2-star hotel. There’s a magician, sexy cowboys, and a guy wearing a belt that sucks up his farts.

IFC: What was the genesis of Celebrity All-Star?

Celebrity All-Star was born from our love of embarrassing celebrities. We love a good c-lister in need of a paycheck! We were really interested in the canned politeness people give off when forced to mingle with strangers. The backstory we created is that the cast of this reality show called “Celebrity All-Star” is in the middle of a mandatory round of “get to know each other” drinks in the hotel bar when the room keys stop working. Shows like Celebrity Ghost Hunters and of course The Surreal Life were of inspo, but we thought it
was funny to keep it really vague what kind of show they’re on, and just focus on everyone’s diva antics after the cameras stop rolling.

IFC: Every celebrity in Celebrity All-Star seems familiar. What real-life pop personalities did you look to for inspiration?

Sisters Weekend: Mike grew up renting “Monty Python” tapes from the library and staying up late to watch 2000’s SNL, Kat was super into Andy Kaufman and “Kids In The Hall” in high school, and Angelo was heavily influenced by “Strangers With Candy” and Anna Faris in the Scary Movie franchise, so, our comedy heroes mesh from all over. But, also we idolize a lot of the people we work with in NY- Lorelei Ramirez, Erin Markey, Mary Houlihan, who are all in the film, Amy Zimmer, Ana Fabrega, Patti Harrison, Sam Taggart. Geniuses! All of Em!

IFC: What’s your favorite moment from the film?

Sisters Weekend: I mean…seeing Mary Houlihan scream at an insane Pomeranian on an iPad is pretty great.

IFC: To varying degrees, your sketches are simply scripted examples of things that actually happen. What makes real life so messed up?

Aurora: Hubris, Ego and Selfish Desires and lack of empathy.

Carolyn: That we’re trapped together in the 3rd Dimension.

Jenn: 1. Other people 2. Other people’s problems 3. Probably something I did.

IFC: A lot of people I know have watched this show and realized, “Dear god, that’s me.” or “Dear god, that’s true.” Why do people have their blinders on?

Aurora: Because most people when you’re in the middle of a situation, you don’t have the perspective to step back and see yourself because you’re caught up in the moment. That’s the job of comedians is to step back and have a self-awareness about these things, not only saying “You’re doing this,” but also, “You’re not the only one doing this.” It’s a delicate balance of making people feel uncomfortable and comforting them at the same time.

IFC: Unlike a lot of popular sketch comedy, your sketches often focus more on group dynamics vs iconic individual characters. Why do you think that is and why is it important?

Meredith: We consider the show to be more based around human dynamics, not so much characters. If anything we’re more attracted to the energy created by people interacting.

Jenn: So much of life is spent trying to work it out with other people, whether it’s at work, at home, trying to commute to work, or even on Facebook it’s pretty hard to escape the group.

IFC: Are there any comedians out there that you feel are just nailing it?

Aurora: I love Key and Peele. I know that their show is done and I’m in denial about it, but they are amazing because there were many times that I would imagine that Keegan Michael Key was in the scene while writing. If I could picture him saying it, I knew it would work. I also kind of have a crush on Jordan Peele and his performance in Big Mouth. Maya Rudolph also just makes everything amazing. Her puberty demon on Big Mouth is flawless. She did an ad for 7th generation tampons that my son, my husband and myself were singing around the house for weeks. If I could even get anything close to her career, I would be happy. I’m also back in love with Rick and Morty. I don’t know if I have a crush on Justin Roiland, I just really love Rick (maybe even more than Morty). I don’t have a crush on Jerry, the dad, but I have a crush on Chris Parnell because he’s so good at being Jerry.

IFC: If you could go back in time and cast yourselves in any sitcom, which would it be and how would it change?

Carolyn: I’d go back in time and cast us in The Partridge Family. We’d make an excellent family band. We’d have a laugh, break into song and wear ruffled blouses with velvet jackets. And of course travel to all our gigs on a Mondrian bus. I feel really confident about this choice.

Meredith: Electric Mayhem from The Muppet Show. It wouldn’t change, they were simply perfect, except… maybe a few more vaginas in the band.

Binge the entire first and second seasons of Baroness von Sketch Show now on IFC.com and the IFC app.